Page 94 of Craving Sin

My fists tighten hearing Cillian’s words. What a sick fuck. I can handle a lot of shit, but taking advantage of someone sexually isn’t one of those things.

“He’s definitely got someone helping him keep this quiet,” Dean says. “There’s a lot of money and time going into it. There’s no way he’s doing this on his own.”

“Who?” Conan asks. Who would be helping him with this and why? People don’t do this kind of thing for nothing. What is he giving them? It can’t just be money.

“I don’t know. I can’t figure that part out.” Dean rubs a hand over his head.

“I want to kill him, Rian. Can I kill him?” Rory asks, and my gaze shoots to the stairs, making sure Abbott hasn’t come down.

He needs to die. I want him to die, but I can’t even begin to sort that out until I talk to Abbott, so I ignore the question.

“Keep looking, Dean. The governor has to be dealt with, but we need to know who is helping him and why.” Something feels…off about this. None of it is sitting right. Not that I don’t believe it. Dean knows what he’s doing, and they wouldn’t be here talking to me about it right now unless they had the proof they need, but this is turning in directions I hadn’t anticipated.

“There’s more,” Cillian says, gaze serious and making the hairs on the back of my neck rise.

“What is it?” Again, my gaze shoots toward the stairs. I didn’t expect us to have this much time. Usually, if Abbott is upstairs when I get home, he comes down to see me. What are you doing?

It’s Cillian who speaks again. “He used one of his secret, offshore accounts to make a payment of fifty thousand dollars the day before you were shot.”

The day before I was shot in an attempt on Abbott’s life. It’s not hard proof, but it’s enough for me. “I’ll fucking kill him,” I say through clenched teeth, jaw tight.

“That’s not all,” my son replies.

My nails dig into my palm as the room around me suddenly sounds echoey. “It doesn’t get worse than that. He’s fucking dead. I don’t care what I have to do to make that happen.”

“Your guy…his mom was shot when he was a kid.” I shoot my gaze to Dean and nod. What is he getting at? “There were two payments made that were really fucking difficult to find. They’re buried deep, Rian…but one was the morning of her murder and one the day after.”

My heart drops. This is going to kill him. How do I tell Abbott that his father tried to have him killed, and succeeded with his mom, the one person Abbott ever felt loved him just for him?

Why would he do that? What would he have gotten out of having her killed? Unless, she knew something about his illegal activities and didn’t want to stay quiet anymore.

Is that what he feared with Abbott too? Or was it for some other sick reason?

I run my hands through my hair. “How the fuck do I tell him this? How do I walk up those stairs and tell him his father had his mom killed and likely tried to do the same with him?” And how many other bodies has Governor Abbott left behind?

I feel all their eyes on me, but none as intensely as Cillian’s.

He walks over, placing a hand on my shoulder. “You tell him the truth…that his father is a piece of shit who doesn’t deserve him. That you love him, and that you’re going to avenge him…and that the people who love you, the ones you love, will be right there with you, making him pay for hurting someone in our family.”

Our family. Cillian is calling Abbott our family, because I love him, and there is nothing in the world like that feeling.

“I hope to one day be as good a man as you,” I tell him. I wish I could take more credit for the man he is, but I can’t. He did that all on his own.

“You are,” Cillian says. “You already are.”

It’s not true, but I thank him all the same before pulling him into a hug. When I catch Ollie’s eye over him, he’s wiping tears away.

Cillian pulls away and joins his boyfriend, Ollie taking his hand, and I hope that Moira is looking down on this and that I’ve finally made her proud.

I clear my throat. “Thank all of you for coming here…and Dean for figuring all of this out for me. Your father would have been proud.”

The room goes silent, Dean’s eyes wide, but it’s Tiernan who says, “Rian…” But I hold up a hand to stop him.

“I’ve known who Dean is since not long after Sloan’s death.” His father was a member of our family. He wanted out to protect his wife and son, and my brother killed him for it. I don’t know why he came and found Tiernan, what the history is there, but I know he loves my nephew and my nephew loves him. That’s all that matters to me.

I know that Sloan found out though, and he planned to kill Dean, but Fia killed him, and then Conan helped them conduct a plan to hide it from me.

They didn’t know if they could trust me.